Improved apparatus for bracing the yards of vessels



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TRAUGOTT BECK, OF NEWARK, NEV JERSEY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,977, dated December24, 186i.

To all whom t may concern..-

Be itknown that I, TRAUGoT'r BECK, of the city of Newark, in the countyof Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain Improvements inthe Means for Bracing the Yards of Navigable Vessels; and I do herebydeclare the following to be a full and exact description of the same,reference being had herein to the drawings, which accompany thisspecification and make part of the same.

The nature of my invention consists in connecting the braces and inmeans to operate both sides at one and the same time, and in providingthe means or apparatus of the operation.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a vessel with the improved apparatusthereon. Fig. 2 shows the barrels so constructed as to take up the slackof the braces While hauling them; Fig. 3, a tightener to meet theeffects of the weather upon the braces.

The same letters refer to the same parts in each figure.

In any convenient place or position in a vessel a barrel or barrels areput so as to be revolved by any common mechanical contrivance.

The barrel or barrels are constructed of a double cone joined togethernear their apex, and thereupon is cut a screw-thread running from oneend to the other in the same direction, as shown in Fig. 2. The barrelis so proportioned in the bevel of the cones as to correspond with theincreasing or decreasing length of the braces consequent upon the endsof the yard-arms e and f turning in a circle and increasing the angle onthe one side while it decreases in the same proportion on the other. Thebrace being round, the smallest part of the barrel when the yards aresquare moves up one incline as much as it comes down on the other, thediameter of the roll or barrel being exactly adapted to the requiredvariations in length of brace.

The braces ay and b c and d are connected at or by the barrel, as thecase may be.

As increasing or decreasing moisture in the atmosphere affects thelength of cordage, and as lowering the top-sail yards in reeiing callsfor variations in the length of the braces, provision is made by afixingthe block, ring-bolt, or dead-eye t' to the vessels side, through whichpasses a rope or chain h, having the sheave-block J at one end for :thebrace a or b c or d to pass through it to the barrel P, and at the otherend is a screw, as Fig. 3. The nut k being fast to the ships side, or,if desired, a lanyard, as Fig.4, can be used, either being placed in themost convenient place. Connecting the braces in'this manner they requireless length of ends, which usually in the ordinary manner lie n coils onthe deck, where their room is an object, the labor of bracing ismaterially decreased, and all the yards can be moved and braced at thesame time, instead of one at a time, in the usual Way.

While I do not claim the separate parts1 they not being new, I do claim-The combination and ,arrangement of the cone-barrels and the tightenerwith the braces, substantially in the manner and for the purposehereinabove specified.

TRAUGOTT BECK.

Vitnesses:

W. M. GooDING, I. D. NESLER.

